Priest who came in from the cold

Dennis Horton feels shunned by the community that once embraced him. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Dennis Horton had to choose between his wife and his church. It is a choice he believes no one should have to make.

A distinguished Catholic priest in Auckland for 31 years, Mr Horton left the clergy in 1996 so he could marry. As a result he lost contact with people close to him and was shunned by the community that once embraced him.

"I suppose, faced with the dilemma of wanting to continue as a priest but also knowing there was something happening in my life; love and growing as a person and wanting to respond to love, that dilemma seemed unfair.

"It's been painful for me, my wife, my family, my friends. The church makes it so difficult for people in my position to have to make that difficult choice. Instead of a man in my position being able to look back from within the church on 31 years of faithful ministry and rejoice, I'm made to feel like an outsider."

Mr Horton shared his experience after a Weekend Herald article last week in which retired Auckland priest Father Humphrey O'Leary called for the Catholic church to accept married men into the clergy.

In New Zealand today there are 453 Catholic priests, compared with 626 a decade ago.

"We have lost a lot of good men who, after some years of excellent ministry, decide it isn't for them to continue to be single," Father O'Leary said. (See link below.)

The church in New Zealand does not see the policy of unmarried and celibate clergy changing "in the foreseeable future".

Mr Horton, now a Catholic layman working with the Sisters of Mercy, is convinced marriage can enrich the priesthood. "I accept that for some called to the ministry, celibacy may be an option. But I don't think you have to be celibate to be a good priest. From my perspective there is nothing about the role of priesthood that precludes marriage."

He hopes the church will eventually see the light.

"The reality is that we only have one life and one can't wait for those decisions before one makes one's own choices. But think about the time it took for the Catholic church, Christian church, to recognise that the world was round in the face of scientific evidence, or the time it took for the church to recognise slavery was wrong."